1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a user interface for use in searching documents.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a document search system includes a unique interface. Even when a general-purpose World Wide Web (WWW) browser can be used by utilizing a common gateway interface (CGI) technology, an operating procedure or a way of displaying the results of research differs from search system to search system. It can therefore be said that search systems (interfaces) are different from one another. Each search system is characterized by a value-added feature that may be a processing speed, a way of graphically displaying the results of search, or an ability to summarize the results of search. A user selects a search system, of which features are helpful for the user to most efficiently search intended information, according to the contents of search.
For example, assume that there are two different search systems for searching the same document database. Search system A can search for documents with reference to, in addition to a keyword, meta-information including an author of documents and a date of production. In contrast, search system B searches documents according to a keyword alone and has the ability to produce and display an overview of the results of search.
When search system A is used to search the document database, a user can effectively find a group of documents, which meets a search request, by designating the meta-information of a desired document. However, it is not easy for the user to summarize the documents. When a user uses the search system B to check the overview of the group of documents found by the search system A, the user can efficiently grasp the tendency of all the results of search and can thus acquire very valuable information.
As mentioned above, it is often very useful to display the results of search, which a user has acquired using the search system A, using the other search system B.
In such a case, conventionally, a user issues an appropriate query to the search system B. The results of search acquired by the search system A at that time are then reproduced. If a kind of search key is different between two different search systems, the reproduction is very hard to do. Supposing a kind of search key required by one search system matches a kind of search key required by the other search system, a feature for designating conditions for search or a search algorithm may be different. Thus, there is generally difficulty in reproducing the results of search, which have been acquired using a certain search system, using another search system.